Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[User395221]

When I got my little girls, I told the lady at the chook farm I had isa browns, and she said they didn't play well with others. And they don't. They are just mean, they push everyone off the food and are really bossy and pushy. I have given up thinking everyone will go in together. My big girls have their own turf and they can just keep their own group together. I just worry about what will happen when they get old. They won't all pop their clogs at the same time. Maybe if somebody goes, the others might be nicer and want to go in with the nice girls. Their "mummy" likes them, even though they aren't nice to other chookens.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Not sure where in Australia you are Fizzybelle .... but presume it might be somewhere kinda south ?

Very cold this morning, but warmed during the day to what was like early summer, here in Upwey, Victoria. Turned out to be a glorious autumn day. We had a sticky humid summer, with a couple of small heatwaves. The girls and my dog Miss Ruby, were most uncomfortable on those high humidity days, here . ( so was I !! ).

Have often thought that hens do it very hard ... all year round. They give birth 6 days out of 7 to an egg that is umpteen sizes larger than their vent, with lots of pushing and purring during laying time - and for the rest of the year when not laying, are losing condition because of moult - then going through growing those prickly pin feathers, which hurt them when settling or sitting ( and us if we are not careful ) when having to handle them. I try not to ever touch them when they are in 'pin feather mode' .... if I have to, I wrap them in a towel to keep their feathering evenly spread ( as best as possible ) and am very gentle in handling them.

Poor wee souls - they go through so much.

If your hens are still laying, they are probably not quite near a moult yet --- might happen as the weather gets colder ( which I think as a hooman, is a natures' boo-boo - as they need their warm feathers during colder days - but don't get to have them, often enough

). Perhaps that is what makes them so hardy ( when healthy ). ??

Cheers .......

I'm in Brissy. I let the girls out at six am, I was just in a shirt and shorts which until now had been sufficient, but the sudden arrival of Autumn coupled with the rain today made for a super cold morning.

The girls do go through so much. When Annabelle or Ada are on the nest, and I hear them call out I reply to them with words of encouragement, and thank them for the eggs when I collect them. A plate of crickets afterwards though helps them forget their troubles (if they had any, they're pretty resilient)

I agree with you too about the fuss over Araucana/Amerucana's. I didn't realize for a while there were different standards for Araucana's, after wading through so much material on how true Aracuana's are supposed to be rumpless and tufted (the tuft gene being another issue entirely too). Not sure how my little Mabel will measure up to the Aussie standard, but she should be a purebred at least. I'm just amazed at how friendly she is, after again, reading about how skittish they're supposed to be. She's friendly, healthy and happy, that's my ideal. The eventual blue eggs will be a cool bonus to that. Any pics of your Mindy? she sounds amazing

Here's a snuggly Mabel during cuddle time

 

[MyHaven]

AnnieB Mindy sounds awesome. She creates her own multicoloured egg basket.

Technology gets too much for me too.

Cluckysmum would love to see progress photos of the new coop.
Isa's are hybrids made especially for commercial egg production. They are "retired" early. 18 months I think. They have had the clucky bred out of them. They are not designed for backyards. As I understand it while heritage breeds and cross breeds don't lay as well they do better on scraps and free ranging. That's because Isa's need much higher protein content in their diet to fuel their egg making machine bodies. I have known them to eat twice as much of quality feed. So much so that I wonder the economics of them. They do have nice natures and it saddens me that they are treated so badly in the commercial world and generally do not live as long.

Fizzybelle ohhh cute Mabel.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Saw this on Facebook and had to share … not that I have a big dog, or any dog at the moment, but I thought it was a great idea for those that do:



Anniebee I can not agree more with you regarding technology upgrades .. working in the industry it is a PITA trying to keep up and makes for interesting telephone conversations when you are trying to troubleshoot something you have never seen before

LuckysMum no problemo on the tip; I hope it makes life easier.

I am not sure if the roadworks crew work on the weekend … I can not hear them at the moment but then I have not paid much attention until now with the realisation that it may be upsetting KiKi.

She was really good yesterday, not much noise at all and so far today [only an hour] she has been quiet. I turned the radio on when I gave them breakfast at 6am.

Long story, but I have a friend staying at my neighbour’s place while he and his family relocate to Brisbane. He moved for work and needed to start straight away and the rest of the family remain in Bundaberg, selling the house, packing etc. I do not have room and she rents out her downstairs to overseas students. As she does not have any at the moment, he is there.

Anyways, on Friday’s he comes over for a couple of beers and a hamburger and I asked him [again] if he has heard the girls in the 3 weeks he has been there or if my neighbour has mentioned their noise at all … nope, nothing .. the Miners, Crows and traffic on the other hand, yep

I, too, look forward to the pics of the new coop.

Fizzybelle that picture of Mabel is just too adorable! What a little sweetheart!

 

[MyHaven]

As I sit here with hand throbbing from a cat chomping on it last night I think that yes I do have a cat problem as well as fox problem but I do have some very smart baby chickens.

I went down stairs to the washing machine last night which is near my brooder. As I walked in I noticed that my five and six day old chickens, we are making the warning sound just like the grown-ups do but in a squeaky version. I can see inside the front of my brooder so looked up to see them all standing there on alert exactly the same as the grown-ups. But out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow move. I looked around but couldn't find anything and eventually convinced myself that I imagined it. About 20 minutes later I heard growling downstairs so went down and found a stray cat and my cat in an altercation. I had earlier locked all the doors so the stray was locked in. I managed to get hold of my cat and just as I was thinking how good she was not ripping me apart, she turned and sunk her teeth into my hand and had several good chomps. And the stray managed to find a hiding spot.

The abridged version is, I managed to get the stray out, stop the blood, and keep my cat inside and chickens safe.

It is a beautiful big long-haired white cat with tortoiseshell markings on it but it does look a bit skinny. At least I know it's not a Tom. But I also am sure it will be back.

Here I was thinking the flock warning system was or at least partly learned, I now know it is instinctive. They do not react to my cat in any way.

 

[User395221]

The girls do go through so much. When Annabelle or Ada are on the nest, and I hear them call out I reply to them with words of encouragement, and thank them for the eggs when I collect them. A plate of crickets afterwards though helps them forget their troubles (if they had any, they're pretty resilient)

Is it normal/usual for a chicken to have company when she's laying an egg? I have a door that opens at the back of the nest boxes and opened it one morning to find my 2 "easter eggers" there together in one of the nest boxes. I then found an egg where one had been sitting (found out who was laying the new little brown eggs). Do they do that? Have a friend along while they are "doing" an egg?

she turned and sunk her teeth into my hand and had several good chomps.

You might want to consider getting some prophylactic antibiotics. Cat mouth germs are not something you want injected into you.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Is it normal/usual for a chicken to have company when she's laying an egg? I have a door that opens at the back of the nest boxes and opened it one morning to find my 2 "easter eggers" there together in one of the nest boxes. I then found an egg where one had been sitting (found out who was laying the new little brown eggs). Do they do that? Have a friend along while they are "doing" an egg?

You might want to consider getting some prophylactic antibiotics. Cat mouth germs are not something you want injected into you.

Well this morning they were both wanting to use the same nest box. Ada's stopped laying her eggs in the garden and gone back to the nest box like she should, of her own accord actually, thankfully. In the past I've had two laying next to each other, but lately if they need to lay at the same time, there seems to be competition over the favourite nest box. Yes, they insist it has to be that one, the left one, or there's complaining. So yeah, in my experience it's not unusual to have two laying together, my girls seem to lay around the same time, generally morning, though I've had morning and afternoon, even very early evening.

 

[CluckerFeet]

Wow I had so much catching up to do! Seventy five unread messages?! Ugh!

Anyway, I’m sorry to hear that the little chooks have mites, mooandmcgee. Remember to keep working at eradicating them all and don’t give up!

Telia congratulations on finding out what Kiki was clucking about! I bet you’re so glad you didn’t end up giving her away! Let’s hope she quietens down soon.

On the subject of ISA’s, I agree with MyHaven. They are production hybrids designed to lay an egg a day… they basically burn themselves out after ‘working’ for so much of their life, which results in a shortened lifespan.

On the subject of moulting…

Little angel always moults ‘on time’. White feathers EVERYWHERE… only her feathers are so thick that the ones she’s lost are the only indication that’s she’s moulting.
Ebony gets a little scruffy and doesn’t always moult… she always loses her tail feathers though.
Dapple is moulting for the first time in the two years of her life. She had a massive bare patch on her back but now she’s getting all her new plumage she looks quite impressive.
Chile decided to start moulting in the middle of a rainy week. She moulted almost ALL of her feathers at once and is extremely moody at the moment. Her new feathers are finally coming through and she’s starting to look less like feather duster that’s been hit by a car and more like a chicken!

On the subject of chicken’s laying eggs together… I’ve had all four squashed in one nesting box before! One chook was clucky (I’m not saying broody much anymore now that I know clucky is the right word… I got a little confused for a while), and three others wanted to lay an egg. They were all so tired from the egg laying that they couldn’t be bothered to fight over the nesting box!

satay feel free to have some of my rain the next time it comes around. It gets so heavy that the yard looks like a swamp. The neighbour’s leaky pipe does not help.

LuckysMum good luck with building the coop! Hope the weather is nice today in Perth so you are able to build it.

sjturner79 sounds like a big project that is already underway. Good luck with your breeding!

AnnieBee it’s always interesting to hear about the antics of Mindy araucana! She sounds like such a character!

Fizzybelle love the pic! Such a sweet little chookster!

Hope I didn’t miss anything… had to type this up on word because of trouble with the site (which was a good idea thanks for the tip you guys). Hope everyone is well… not to mention all your chooks! :7

 

[User395221]

When they were in there, it didn't look as if Marcy wanted to lay an egg. She was standing up, Grace was lying down. It looked like she was just "hanging out" with Grace while Grace did her egg. And there was only one egg afterwards.

They do tend to lay in the same box though, so maybe she was in there "waiting her turn".

 

[Fizzybelle]

For those of you with all bantams, do you get enough eggs and find them useful (like in cooking, frying them ect)? My mother was complaining that when our large girls stop laying we'll be stuck with a bunch of useless eggs which I totally disagree with. You might need two instead of one, but really, I don't see a problem. Cept maybe for a boiled egg, might be a bit fiddly. Then again she was cranky at Dad and I for getting Ada and Annabelle in the first place, yet at the time we had two hens who had stopped laying, and one bantam Oh, and are Pekins seasonal layers? I'm wondering if I'll need to wait until spring for Esme to start laying. Her and Agnes have been chest bumping a bit lately, wondering if hormones are raging a little bit.